All posts tagged Star Trek

How long do we have to wait for an invisibility cloak? The concept is no longer the province of sci-fi and fantasy works.

Engineers have shown that certain materials can deflect and absorb waves of light — or sound — in ways that make the waves behave as if the object weren’t there. “Star Trek” or “Harry Potter” levels of invisibility remain far-off dreams, but the underlying principle has been demonstrated: Researchers have successfully masked certain colors, for example.

Duke University’s David R. Smith is one of the pioneers in this field. In a 2006 paper, in Science, he showed that small object could be largely hidden from microwaves. He has since extended those findings to soundwaves, and even showed that it is theoretically possible to create a boat that has no wake (and encounters no water resistance).

On Thursday, at noon, Smith will answer questions about cloaking in a live webcast produced by Duke. Tweet the questions using the hashtag #dukelive, or email them to live@duke.edu. The event is part of Duke’s “Office Hours” outreach program.

Remember, when you first saw it, maybe in fifth grade, how deep you thought that ‘Star Trek’ episode was that featured an alien who was half-black and half-white (divided down the middle, with the help of theatrical face paint) who was full of raging hatred against another alien who was half-black and half-white (also divided down the middle). The only difference: one man was white on the right side, the other was white on the left side! To outsiders, they were indistinguishable. Which, when you think about it, man, is kind of like our own Earth-bound racial disputes.

Leonard Nimoy remembers the episode, too. The Jewish-American actor who played Spock has issued a statement calling for movement on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides toward a two-state solution. It was issued by a left-leaning non-profit group, Americans for Peace Now, but was quite moderate in tone:

“It’s known as the two-state solution–a secure, democratic Israel as the Jewish State alongside an independent Palestinian state,” the noted American actor said, adding that even Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, whom he calls “nationalistic,” has come “to see this as the shape of the future.”

In his statement, Nimoy invoked the classic episode involving the warring black-and-white tribes, which was titled “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”:

Biographies

Gary Rosen is the editor of Review and the former managing editor of Commentary magazine. His articles and reviews have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. He is the author of "American Compact: James Madison and the Problem of Founding" and the editor of "The Right War? The Conservative Debate on Iraq."